When Rodney McKay walked into the auxiliary hangar early the next morning, he had figured that he'd be the first person there. He was surprised, therefore, to see that Mitchell had already arrived and seemed to be doing a preflight of all the external systems. She flashed him a smile of welcome when he walked over, a small duffle bag slung over his shoulder and a cup of coffee in his other hand, but didn't stop what she was doing. Knowing that he didn't appreciate it when people interrupted him with stupid questions when he was busy – and they were always stupid questions – he waited for her to finish, fairly certain when he saw a fresh cup of coffee near at hand that it wouldn't be long until she stopped long enough to take a sip at least.
Sure enough, a couple minutes later she finished the examination of the left drive pod and turned her attention to her coffee. And him.
"Good morning."
He hesitated.
"I was going to do the preflight for you."
She shrugged.
"I figured I might as well get to know her a little better."
Which made sense, he supposed.
"Well… want me to do the internal systems?"
She shook her head.
"I already did that."
He didn't even bother to hide his surprise.
"How long have you been up?"
She shrugged.
"A while."
All night
Close enough.
It was hard not to be excited. Lantica was everything Carter and McKay had told her it would be and she was really looking forward to flying her. She'd actually been the last one out the night before and had returned to the hangar only hours later to start preflight checks that normally only lasted a few minutes, but took longer this time; both because she was being careful since it was the first time they'd be flying it and because she'd stop every now and then and admire one feature or another.
Rodney made a slightly annoyed noise and set his bag down.
"Have you decided where we're going on this maiden flight?"
It wasn't something that had really been discussed, since it wasn't an actual mission per se, and she hadn't really given it a lot of thought.
"I figured we'd just take her for a spin – go through a Stargate or two to test the drive pods and make sure the navigation systems and the DHD are working the way they're supposed to." She had a feeling, though, that he had other ideas, and figured she might as well ask. "Why? What do you have in mind?"
He gave her a smug smile.
"I thought we might go pick up Carson."
Now it was her turn to hesitate. Not because she didn't like the idea, but because it really wasn't something she'd even considered.
"He's not due back for five days…"
McKay shrugged.
"So? We can shakedown first and then pick him up."
He just wants to show off the ship
Melony didn't have a problem with showing off the ship, though, so she didn't mind that. However, Carson Beckett was on an important trip – checking the health of a large group of refugees that had been discovered on one of the last planets culled by the Wraith, and she was pretty sure he wasn't going to want to cut it short – or even be distracted – even to see the new ship. Although he'd probably tell her he didn't mind.
"We should-"
"Colonel Mitchell to the control room, please. Control Mitchell, please report to the control room."
The voice was one of the technicians who were in charge of monitoring the computers in the control room overnight. He obviously hadn't expected her to be up and about at this time of day or he would have used the radio to contact her personally instead of making it a city wide general call.
McKay frowned.
"What do they want?"
She shrugged and immediately set down her coffee cup, figuring that the only thing that would have them calling her to the control room at this time of day was something important. And since it was the overnight crew doing the calling, it had to be something that came up suddenly enough that Weir and the others hadn't been called up, either.
"What time is it on Earth?" she asked.
McKay looked at his watch.
"Mid-afternoon."
"Come on."
They headed toward the nearest transporter
OOOOOOOOOOOOO
Elizabeth Weir looked like she'd roused out of bed only a minute before – which probably was the case given the early hour. She looked up as Mitchell and Rodney walked in, Teal'c standing beside her and a just as rumpled looking Teyla entering from the other direction at the same time with Sheppard right beside her. They had just enough time to register that the gate was activated before Weir waved them over.
"You have a message, Colonel."
She walked over and looked at the monitor – and wasn't at all surprised to see that Jack O'Neill was on the other end. Who else would be calling from the SGC?
"Jack?"
He forced a smile, but she knew him well enough to know that he was a little worried about something.
"Colonel. I need you on this end of the gate."
She raised an eyebrow at that. Both the formality and the order.
"What's going on, General?"
"I'll tell you when you get here."
Meaning he didn't want whatever it was to be overheard – either by his people or Weir's.
She frowned, wondering what it was.
"Alone?"
"No. Bring Teal'c and whoever else you want. I'll see you when you get here."
He turned and nodded at someone off screen and the monitor went blank and the Stargate disengaged.
Huh.
Mitchell turned to the others.
"Looks like we're going to Earth."